How We Learn
by Albino Bebop
Summary: A short blurb. Lucas has suffered an embarrassing defeat, and Peach offers a few words of advice.


**Author's Note:** _First off, I want to let you all know how grateful I am that you've actually clicked on that little link and let yourself be brought here. That first step is the most important part of getting into a story, as I'm sure most everyone knows._

_Second, I've been writing for a long time, but I've never actually submitted anything to this site, even though I've had my account for upward of a year now. This is my first volley in the literary bloodbath that is FFNET._

_Before we begin, I'll let you know that this will most likely be a collection of drabbles and one-shots, if I continue it at all; I tend to be a little perfectionistic, and the longer it gets, the more critical I am of myself as I write it. I'll be editing this and any other drabbles, for greater clarity, better flow, etc. I can do this with your help, so review, if possible. :)_

_The characters shown here are copyright their respective creators/distributors, and Super Smash Brothers is copyright Masahiro Sakurai, HAL Labs, and Nintendo. I make no profit of any kind off of this._

_All right. Here we go._

--

"Link?" Peach stood in the doorway, knocking softly on the frame. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" The Hylian looked up, his ocarina practice interrupted.

"It's about your last match, with Lucas. Don't you think you maybe..." She nervously twirled a lock of hair around a finger, "..._overdid_ it a little? I know we're supposed to give the audience a good show, but that last KO was..."

He said nothing, as always, merely casting an inquisitive look at the princess in his doorway, who gently wrung her hands as she tried to think of a good way to word it.

The memory of a red-faced, sobbing Lucas was still fresh in her head. He'd been so embarrassed, that after the match had ended, he had gone to his room at a dead sprint, shut the door, and had stayed there all afternoon. The princess had spent nearly an hour consoling him through his door as he fervently swore he would never set foot in that arena again. She could still hear the crowd laughing as he flew into the warp field from the sheer power of Link's Triforce Slash.

As a Newcomer, Lucas was still having trouble adjusting to the lifestyle Smashers were expected to live, and as such, rested firmly at the bottom of the standings. Peach and most of the veterans did their best to be supportive, but some of the other competitors hadn't been as generous. Teasing and heckling was one thing, something expected for all newcomers, but Lucas had a difficult time dealing with it; Some of the others, Dedede, Wario and Bowser in particular had picked up on this quickly, and had come to find a great amount of joy in salting his emotional wounds. It had been all Lucas could do to sit there and take their mockery. She'd gone through the same thing when she'd been a newcomer, but with this defeat, the boy had reached his limit, and the sight of him unraveling like that broke her heart.

"...Well, it seemed a little harsh. You could have hurt him, badly! What's worse, you KNOW he's a tender-hearted kid! Did you really have to _humiliate_ him like that?"

Link rolled his eyes and sighed. It wasn't his fault Lucas had no spine! The little twerp had actually been doing _well_ for once! He'd had Link in a vulnerable position after using that PK Thunder move of his to grab the Smash Ball while Link was in the air, just inches from it. He could have let off a PK Starstorm and ended the match in an instant, but he'd hesitated instead. The way Link saw it, he'd taught the kid a lesson; never give your opponent a chance to recover, and never, ever, EVER, miss an opportunity to take your opponent down.

Nobody had been there to support him or kiss HIS boo-boos when he'd been learning to fight; a missed swing of the sword or a shield raised too slowly meant a ReDead latched onto you with its teeth in your neck, or a Lizalfos' claws in your belly. He'd messed up when he had been young, and it was only by the Goddess' kindness that he was still alive. Why did he have to go all mushy on the kid when he hadn't gotten the same treatment?

"Link... I might not be able to read you like Zelda or Ganondorf," she strode across the room to stand over him, arms crossed. "but we both know that Lucas worships the ground you walk on! He is trying hard, damned hard to gain your acceptance, and what you did out there... it's CRUSHED him! He has enough problems with his self-esteem already, and I think this 'tough guy' act of yours is going to make it worse!"

Link shrugged.

"You didn't treat _me_ this poorly when I was new, and I'm not exactly a fighter, either!" Peach remembered several mistakes that had cost her both victory, and a fair chunk of her dignity. It had been tough in the beginning, but she'd managed to survive.

His hard-eyed stare turned toward the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. Peach took his chin in her small hand and turned his head back toward her. "No, Link, I'm not going to let this drop! You know this goes on outside the arena too! You've seen some of the others picking on him before! Now, Bowser, Dedede, Wario, I expect that from them, but some of the other newcomers have gotten in on it, too! You've been watching all this time and you haven't said a word!"

Link raised an eyebrow.

"You KNOW what I mean," Peach huffed indignantly. "He's a sweet boy, and he doesn't deserve this kind of treatment! I mean, I'm not expecting you to _coddle_ him, but this bullying has got to _stop!_"

He scoffed, rolled his eyes again. "Bullying," nothing; he was trying to knock a little sense into him. He'd been hoping that the kid would put action and consequence together and learn not to leave himself open again, but with Peach's incessant mothering, he wasn't going to learn a thing. Let the kid take a few hits and eventually, he'd start to get it!

Peach, with a sigh of exasperation, finally threw her hands in the air. "This is getting nowhere! I bet Zelda can talk a little sense into you!" Grumbling to herself about testosterone, pride, and the combination thereof, she left, closing the door a little harder than she normally would have.

Link sighed, picking up his ocarina once more. Peach was a sweet person, but she could be a real bleeding heart at times. If she spent more than a second thinking about the way SHE treated Lucas, the way she kept sticking her neck out for him, she might realize that she was messing him up a fair deal; if she didn't let him stand up for himself every now and then, he would never learn to; tragic though it was that the kid lost his mother at such an early age (Link couldn't even remember his own parents), latching on to a surrogate wasn't the way to adapt. He couldn't go through life expecting someone to take care of him; he had to learn to be strong.

He was in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

--

As luck would have it, Zelda was not in her room, nor any of the common rooms; damn it all, but if that woman didn't want to be found, she really knew how to disappear! Peach eventually gave up, deciding it better to approach her in the morning. If anyone understood how Link thought, it would be her. She briefly found herself wondering how it could be so easy for Zelda to pick the intentions and meanings out of the littlest of his gestures; Link could sigh, or change his expression only slightly, and she would know exactly what he was thinking! Peach couldn't figure out how she managed to see through that expressionless wall of a man. But then, she'd never had much practice in that art; Mario and Luigi, the men they were, tended to wear their hearts on their sleeves, as their loud, animated banter often showed.

As she was headed back to her room, Peach decided it best to check on Lucas again. His door was closed, so she knocked softly. "Lucas? Are you still up?"

A beat, and Lucas' small voice, still a little raspy, came from behind the door. "Yes."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure..."

She gently turned the knob and pushed the door open a crack, just wide enough to lean inside. Lucas was in his pajamas, staring at the ceiling as he lay on his bed.

"How are you doing? Feeling better?"

"I guess."

She made her way over to him, gently sitting down at the edge of his bed. "You weren't at dinner earlier. I was worried."

"I'm not going back out there. They're all gonna laugh at me." He spoke quietly. Now that she was closer, Peach could see his eyes were still a little red. She gently put a hand on his knee.

"Maybe they will, but if you hold your head high, they won't be able to think any less of you; and if they do, it'll reflect badly on _them._"

Lucas continued staring at the ceiling, sighing to himself.

Peach continued. "It's not like _they_ haven't had embarrassing matches themselves. I remember watching one of Link's fights in the last tournament, actually..." Lucas sat up slightly, to look at her as a smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth.

"He's up against Luigi, and Luigi's really having a tough time of it; he can't keep up with Link, and he's getting pummelled! He gets a few good shots in, but he ends up just running around the arena, trying to get his bearings, and the crowd, all the while, is just _laughing_ at him; they're thinking, 'What could this bum possibly do? He's gonna get creamed!'"

Lucas could certainly empathize with that; Luigi understood all too well what it felt like to be at the bottom of the ladder, to have nobody really believe in him. He sometimes found himself wondering why the quiet Italian let himself be the butt of so many jokes, let himself be put down so much. He couldn't get how he could let himself live in his brother's shadow and still have his dignity, though he dared not voice these thoughts aloud.

"It doesn't help when a super star appears, and naturally, Link pounces on it. He wallops Luigi around for a bit, and finally backs him up to the edge of the arena. He rushes in, ready to finish him off..." A smile spread across her face, and her voice started to shake with pent-up laughter, "...and _trips!_ He falls flat on his face, and the second he gets to his feet, the star wears off! Next thing he knows, Luigi's grabbed him and flung him off the stage!"

Lucas didn't quite believe it for a moment; Link messed up? But he was such a great fighter! He'd never lost a match in the time Lucas had been here! "I bet he was embarrassed..."

"He was _mortified!_" Peach was laughing by now. "He still turns a little red whenever anyone even mentions it!"

Lucas laughed weakly, and a small smile appeared on his face as Peach's laughter died down into a giggling fit. Eventually, she dabbed the tears away from her eyes, pulled in a breath, and composed herself once more.

"What I'm trying to say is, you made a mistake: Big deal! It happens! And when it does, you pick yourself up, and you keep going!" She turned to face him, and he immediately looked down, at a spot on his blanket. She put a hand on his head, and gently tousled his wavy blond hair. "Don't let the others get you down, because nobody here really has the right to get on your back about it; we were _all_ beginners at some point, and we've _all_ made some boneheaded moves in the past; it's how we learn." Lucas nodded, swallowing, still looking down.

Peach took him by the shoulders, and craned her neck down so she could look him in the eyes. "There are people who believe in you, Lucas. You just need to believe in yourself. Your time to shine will come, and when it does, they'll get to see what _I_ see in you; a strong, noble boy, with a heart as big as himself! Does it help to know that?"

"Uh-huh." It really did help to hear it put that way; Lucas felt a little of the weight lift.

She smiled at him. "That's good. And hey," She pulled the boy into a hug. "Just so you know, I think you did really well. I'm proud of you!"

"Th-thank you, Peach." He rested his head on her shoulder. She smelled of lilacs, his mother's favorite flower.

"There's no need to thank me, honey. Seeing you succeed will be more than enough." She let go of the boy, ruffling his hair again, and stood up, smoothing her dress. "Now, try to get some rest; tomorrow's another day."

--

**Author's Note:** _Thanks very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!_

_I wrote this because I've noticed that Lucas seems to have a bad rap among a lot of the people I've met who play Super Smash Brothers; "He's just a clone of Ness," "He's a pansy/nancyboy/wuss," "He's stupid," etc., are just a few of the things I've heard from them. I play as him regularly, and in the right hands, he is a very able and strong fighter. This story was my way of saying "I've got your back," and telling others who like the character that they're not alone._

_I like the character of Lucas; he's very shy and not quite able to stand on his own yet, (reminds me a lot of myself around his age) but I think that's what makes him so endearing._

_Peach has a big heart; I imagine she'd take a motherly role, especially with the younger fighters._

_And for the record, Link fans; I do not believe that he's a bad person. I'll admit, he seems like a bit of a jerk here, but you need to keep in mind the time/place from which he comes. Hyrule is a dangerous place, and people probably die young there on a regular basis. Strength and decisiveness are two things you need to survive there. Link, as I said before, is not a bully; he's just trying to teach Lucas to fight the only way he knows how._

_Once again, thank you for reading, and please click that little button on the bottom-left, and let me know what you thought. Who knows? If I get enough positive feedback, and the muse-hammer hits me in the face again, I'll add more. :D_


End file.
